“Essential reading for anyone interested in the wider roots and antecedents of international syndicalism and anarchism.” —David Welch, author of Propaganda, Power and Persuasion: From the First World War to WikiLeaks

Goals and Means investigates the relationship between revolutionary syndicalism and anarchism in Spain from the founding of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) in 1910 to the Second Republic in 1931. Garner explores Spanish anarcho-syndicalism’s unique characteristics while placing its development within global events and the wider international syndicalist movement. Anarcho-syndicalism is a hybrid of revolutionary syndicalism in which the anarchist goal—the triumph of the social revolution and the implantation of libertarian socialism—would be achieved by syndicalism’s tactical means. Working outside statist and collaborationist political structures did not, however, mean abandoning political strategy. The Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) was formed in 1927 and quickly sought to ensure a role for anarchism within the syndicalist union. The development of anarcho-syndicalism—and the tensions it spawned within the larger socialist movement—has much to teach us today as we chart our own future.

Jason Garner was visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster and taught at the University of Kent. He currently lives in Patagonia, Argentina with his wife and two children, teaching history and English. He is investigating the anarchist movement in Argentina in the early twentieth century.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Revolutionary Syndicalismbefore 1917The First International and the Birth of the Anarchist MovementThe First International in SpainDivision, Wilderness and Violence – Propaganda of the Deed

2. The Early Years of the CNT: GerminationThe Formation of the CNTThe London International Syndicalist Congress, September 1913Anarchist Internationalism before the First World WarThe El Ferrol International Congress of Peace, 1915Working-Class Unity: Revolutionary Syndicalism and ReformistSocialism

3. Revolutionary Politics and Revolutionary SyndicalismInitial Reaction to the Bolshevik RevolutionThe Delegation to the Second Comintern CongressThe Delegation to the Inaugural Profintern CongressSeparated by an Ideological and Tactical Chasm

4. An Independent Revolutionary Syndicalist InternationalRevolutionary Syndicalist Internationalism following the LondonCongress, 1913The Formation of the New IWMAReaction to the IWMA within the CNT

5. Early Conflicts between Anarchism and SyndicalismAnarchist Reaction to the Rise and Demise of the CNT, 1918–1922The International Anarchist Congresses of 1921 and 1923The Madrid National Anarchist Congress, 1923The Growth in Anarchist Activity in the Unions in 1923

6. Ideological Conflict in the First Years ofthe DictatorshipThe International Dispute between the Catalan CRT and theArgentine FORAIdeological Conflicts in CataloniaAnarchists against the MOASyndicalist Shortcomings Exposed

7. Exile in France: International Solidarityand National DisunityLibertarian Exiles in France before November 1924Organising in Exile: The FGALEF and the Cuadros SindicalesInternational Contacts213

8. Anarchist Organisation and Syndicalist OverreactionThe Proposed Iberian Syndicalist ConfederationThe Creation of the Federación Anarquista IbéricaFAI Collaboration in the Reorganisation of the CNTThe FAI’s International PolicyAngel Pestaña and the Professionalisation of the CNTReturn to Legality – The 1930 Relaunch of the CNT